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Month: May 2016

The ILAC Workshop Higher Education in Canada is a bi-annual event held by ILAC, which provides top agents interested in higher education in Canada with the opportunity of getting to know and learning about ILAC’s partner colleges and universities.

90 agents from over 20 countries visited ILAC’s campuses in Toronto, and explored Canada’s most populated city with 2.6 million inhabitants, and ranked as the World’s Best Place to Live.

Agents were greeted by ILAC staff and participated in different ice-breaking activities, getting to know each other and winning surprises, such as ILAC’s new active wear.Sponsored by: George Brown College

ILAC loves to give agents a VIP experience. The next activity to take on was a full learning experience about beautiful Toronto in a limo tour, sipping on fizzling champagne and having fun with a game of questions to participate for even more prizes!

The Distillery District turned into Hollywood in Toronto for a night! Agents walked on the ILAC Red Carpet for the gala dinner at Archeo restaurant, greeted by the one and only: Stanley the ILAC Moose!Sponsored by: Centennial College

After a day of meetings and exploring Toronto, agents enjoyed a night to remember at the trendy Distillery District! Participation awards were a special moment during this great evening.Sponsored by: Centennial College

Amber Lounge opened its doors to celebrate a weekend full of successful meetings and business partnerships! Samba dancers kicked off the party with a Brazilian-style performance.Sponsored by: Thompson Rivers University

Thank you to all the agents and partner institutions who participated in the ILAC Workshop Higher Education in Canada! We hope it was a rewarding experience for you, and got to learn about education opportunities for international students in Canada.

Don’t forget to SHARE your photos from with the hashtag #ILACworkshop!

Free this Week! Learn about Social Emotional Learning and the Impact on Kids

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Social Emotional Learning is so important. The free online conferencegoing on now put together by Jason and Ceilia Hilkey with experts like Alfie Kohn, Tony Wagner and many more experts on this topic is a must-listen and share.

My interview will air on Friday about Using Projects to teach Compassion AND Technology to share how compassion-based engineering works in the classroom. Teachers, administrators, homeschoolers, and parents will find inspiration.

Please join me for the Education: Next Generation Online Conference! This is a FREE global online event from May 23-27, 2016, bringing together the voices of over 25 experts and thought leaders in parenting and education. The conference is hosted by Jason and Cecilia Hilkey, educators and creators of Happily Family.

You’ll get access to cutting-edge interviews full of inspirational ideas and practical tools to raise and work with children using connection and cooperation. These educators, researchers, and authors support parents and teachers who desire to live more creatively and compassionately at home and school. You will leave more aware, more empowered, and with the tools you need to help children (and yourself) LEAD, LEARN & LOVE! (See below for the schedule.)

Some of the speakers (I’m one too):

Alfie Kohn (Author of Feel Bad Education and Unconditional Parenting)

Scott Noelle (Author of the Daily Groove and founder of PATH Parenting)

don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. (Author of 5 Levels of Attachment)

Dr. Ross Greene (Founder of Lives in the Balance, Author of The Explosive Child)

Tony Wagner (Expert in Residence at Harvard’s Innovation Lab, Author of Most Likely to Succeed)

Conference Schedule

My Interview will air on Friday of the conference but wow, there are some amazing presenters.

Available via Recording

I’m a tad late so you don’t want to miss these, now you can purchase all of the videos to use from the conference site for those interviews which have already aired. So if you want to see these videos, you’ll want to go that route.

See More and Register at NO COST here.

Each day, from May 23-27, there will be 5 video interviews with expert speakers, available for viewing for 24 hours.

The full schedule of interviews and instructions for how to tune in will be emailed to you each day, so be sure to register!

This conference will bring tens of thousands of parents and educators together from all around the world to explore how we can raise happy, self-motivated, resilient kids.

He was dyslexic. I’m not sure if there is such a thing is “very” dyslexic. If there was, he was.

I had a trick that worked with my older children. But would it work for him?

The “trick” was simple. On a long trip, I would start reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I would put as much excitement and energy my reading as I could. Usually, I would read for thirty minutes to an hour each day on the book.

I would wait until the kids were fascinated by the book. I could tell. For example, when we would stop for gas, the moment we were back in the car, they’d beg for me to read again. It was almost cruel to stop reading right there. But that is what I did.

I would yawn, stretch my arms, and say,

“You know what? I’m really tired.”

I would hear howls from the backseat.

They wanted to know what happened next.

So, I would turn around and say,

“Read it for yourself. I won’t stop you.”

(My older two kids never asked why I happened to have two copies of the book with me on the trip!)

And with that, there was no stopping them. My kids read. And read. And read. Within weeks, they would be finished with the whole series. That summer, each of them read thousands of pages of books.

I can’t take credit for this idea. My fifth-grade teacher Ginger Collins used it on me.

Mrs. Collins was very pregnant. Huge. Miserable. On those hot South Georgia days, she would sit in her rocking chair. She read A Wrinkle in Time to us. Sometimes we got a chapter; sometimes we got a little less.

But I remember getting frustrated when the book got great. I HAD TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! So I went to library got the book and finished it. It was such a good book that even though she read it after I finished it, I still enjoyed it the second time.

That was the beginning my journey. There was no stopping me. The summer after fifth grade, I read everything. From Homer to James Michener, I inhaled books.

So, would this work with a child who struggled with dyslexia?

I only needed one copy of Narnia, but that summer changed everything. There was no stopping my youngest child. He became an amazing reader. He still is.

To be fair, I have to note, this event was the turning point. But this was not the FIRST time I read to the kids.

To put it simply, I read with all of my children until they were motivated to read for themselves. But it took a challenging book a bit past their reading level and several hours in the car.

Taking time to read shows kids that it’s important. We read to them just about from the moment they were born. Books represented warm, snuggly time with parents who loved them. But in that plot twist moment in the car, books became riveting.

So, on your next trip — put up those movies! Put up those games! Read! It might just be the most worthwhile trip you’ll ever take. You may just start your child on a journey that lasts a lifetime.

Today’s Sponsor: Rustic Pathways. The most memorable experiences in my teaching career happened on trips with students. Today’s sponsor Rustic Pathways can help plan your trip and make learning meaningful. Take time now to plan an incredible trip with your students. go to groups.rusticpathways.com/cool-cat/ to learn more about the exciting trips you can plan with students.

ILAC is proud to announce that a new articulation agreement with Canadore College has been established!

Canadore College is known as one of the leader institutions on aviation training for over 40 years. Some of the highlights of Canadore College are their Aviation Campus, equipped with the best industry-standard training tools, the 87,000 sq. ft. training facility which is ideally located at North Bay’s Jack Garland Airport, and its 10,000 foot runway (the longest north of Toronto).

Photo by Canadore College

Their Programs include:

Aircraft Structural Repair Technician

Aviation Fundamentals

Aircraft Maintenance

Aviation Technician – Avionics Maintenance

Aviation Technology – Aircraft Maintenance and Avionics

Aviation Technology – Aircraft Maintenance and Structures

Commercial Fixed Wing Pilot

First Peoples’ Aviation Technology – Flight

Helicopter Flight Training

ILAC Academic Pathway students can now gain admission to all Canadore College aviation programs, from Aviation Technician – Avionics Maintenance to Commercial Fixed Wing Pilot programs without IELTS or TOEFL!

If you are interested in one of these programas, please email academic@ilac.com for more information.

Examine your relationships. You may find a secret stash of energy waiting to be unleashed.

The People Who Drain Our Energy

Some people are vampires. When they come around, you taste dread. Inevitably, they will suck your blood. Well, not literally, they won’t suck your blood. But certainly they’ll absorb your will to live. You are less energized when you leave their presence.

Supposedly Picasso was a vampire. The sculptor Constatin Brancusi literally “unfriended” Picasso. He said being around Picasso was exhausting. Picasso took everyone else’s life drained them of it and put it into his paintings.

The first step to having more energy is to start noticing how interactions with others make us feel. Are we being sucked dry?

If we aren’t aware of how people affect our energy, we can find ourselves drained all the time. We need stamina. We can’t always eliminate the vampires. But just like a real vampire, the closer he gets, the more likely he’s going to bite.

We can limit our exposure to negative, angry, bitter, life-sucking people. Or, we can just guard our heart when we are around them and keep perspective on trying to please people who cannot be pleased.

The People Who Boost Our Energy and Help Us Achieve Great Things

Some people are Dragonslayers. They are real people too. Not like Don Quixote fighting a windmill– these people fight real problems and vanquish them!

What’s great about dragonslayers is their energy and determination. These people are so inspirational!

We want to hang out with people who make big problems seem smaller. They make us feel like we can kill the hidden monsters of the sea.

Life is full of problems. We all get knocked down. But the true Dragonslayer fights the dragon until it moves on or until the dragon is defeated.

Oh, to labor alongside a Dragonslayer once or twice in life! For they are out there.

So, the second thing you’ll want to do is to surround yourself with people who fight and win. You become like the people you think about and hang around the most.

So, if dragonslayers are your friend, you’ll find yourself drawing your sword and taking on your own dragons. You’ll kill problems. You’ll be the person who reaches the unreachable child. You’ll be the person who pays off that huge credit card debt. You’ll be the person who fights to save a relationship. You won’t fall on your sword anymore, you’ll use it to fight and win.

You Have a Choice

Are you more like a vampire?

Are you more like a Dragonslayer?

Are we problem solvers or problem creators?

I don’t know if one can be neutral. You have to choose. You can also change direction if you realize you are sucking the life out of those you love. We can change.

But then again if you’re the Dragon, I guess the Dragonslayer is a vampire.

STEM lessons can be fun. Whether it is origami jumping frogs or making a boat out of cement, Mandy Casto has eight high-energy ideas for making STEM fun. She also shares her favorite ways to find new ideas and about the success of school-wide “STEM Time” for the students each week.

Last year I judged a robotics competition for Wonder Workshop. I was amazed at the incredible things students could do with Dash and Dot. This would make a great summer activity at home for kids or check out their robotics clubs.

If you sign up to start a club before July 10, you may be eligible for a $10,000 grant to get your club started. (They also have some cool things to help you get going.)

My son loves the Dash and Dot robots from Wonder Workshop. He’ll be programming them over the summer as I continue to reinforce Computer Science at home.

Show Notes:

8 Lessons Mandy used to make STEM fun

The benefits of having “STEM TIME” in your school.

How to connect all subjects with STEM in unique ways. (You can connect history, ELA and more to STEM.)

How Mandy helps students become more courageous and creative.

Mandy’s favorite places to find ideas to make STEM fun.

Mandy Casto @thatmathlady is a middle school math and science teacher in Concord, North Carolina. She currently teaches students in a STEM program and is constantly amazed by the impact of STEM education on her students.

Note: I promised the link to the other show where we talked about pumpkin chunkin.